Team India will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine period in Adelaide before the commencement of the four-match Test series against Australia. However, citing the importance of the series, former chief BCCI sector, MSK Prasad reckons that the team management will be looking to go with a jumbo squad and he feels like it might go with a 26-strong squad for the tour Down Under where both India and the ‘A’ team can be expected to tour together.

During a latest interview with PTI, Prasad said, “The team management and seniors will have an opportunity to look at the youngsters who are knocking the doors. In this process, you can also monitor those players who can be the potential guys for different spots in the future. Since we cannot trust the net bowlers about their exposure to COVID, it would be ideal to go with a large contingent as we can be assured of all the players’ safety as they will be in a bio-secure environment.”

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Prasad opined that it will be a healthy preparation for the Indian team as the first-choice batsmen will have a wide variety of bowlers at their disposal. A good bunch of reserve pacers would be ideal as the first choice bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Umesh Yadav won’t get tired in the nets in the absence of net bowlers.

Prasad also shared that if there is no domestic cricket happening then having some extra players will help the final squad in terms of quality preparation leading up to the Test series.

The former selector explained, “Also if IPL is going to happen prior to this series then carrying a large contingent is better as we need to be ready with backups in case somebody gets injured or is carrying the niggles from the IPL. The only tough part that we will be facing because of this large contingent is managing such a large pool of players. To provide quality practice sessions to all of them will also be a challenge.”

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Asked to put on the selector’s hat one more time, the former India wicketkeeper picked up his choice of 26 players — a mix and match of Test, ODI, and T20 specialists.

His Choices:

• Openers: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul.
• Middle-order: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer.
• Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha.
• Spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav.
• All-rounder: Hardik Pandya.
• Pacers: Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur.
• Purely white ball: Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya.